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Hollinger Corp. 
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LC 1671 
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ADDRESS 



ON THE 



EDUCATION OF WOMAN, 



Gcliberti at the Stombersaru 



& 



OF THE 



PITTSFIELD YOUNG LADIES' INSTITUTE, 



September 30th, 1852, 



BY RAY PALMER, 1). D. 

11 



« ♦ » » » 




ALBANY: 

GRAY, SPRAGUE, & CO. 

1852. 



JOEL MUNSELL, PRINTER, 
ALBANY. 






ADDRESS. 



It is with a very sincere pleasure that I con- 
gratulate the instructors and pupils of this Se- 
minary, as well as the friends of education who 
are present, on the return of this anniversary. 
Several of the happiest and most profitable 
years of my own life, were passed as a teacher 
in a similar institution. The recollection of 
the scenes and the labors of those years, is still 
fresh ; and in it, I find the ground of a lively 
sympathy with all that here transpires to-day. 
As a parent, too, I very well understand how 
deep and tender is the interest which those 
must naturally feel, whose children bear a part 
in the exercises and excitements which belong 
to the occasion. It would seem impossible but 
that to all, whether more or less directly con- 
cerned in what is done in these closing hours 
of another year of study, there should come 
some deep and serious sense of the significance 
of the scene which is presented. 



4 

Yet, after all, I confess to a strong conviction, 
that even those of us who may understand the 
matter best, and still more the public generally 
who have no personal relations to the occasion, 
are very far from having an adequate impres- 
sion of the magnitude aiid moment of the 
work which is going on in an institution such 
as this, and the progress in which, is illustrated 
by the closing examinations and exercises of a 
session. As in the studio of the artist, the 
rough material is to be wrought and polished 
into forms of admirable grace, even so here, 
the natural traits of individual mind and char- 
acter, are to be moulded into the nearest pos- 
sible approximation to the ideal of living ex- 
cellence — to the fair conception of what is ab- 
solutety perfect, both in intellectual and moral 
culture. To what more difficult, or more pro- 
foundly interesting undertaking, is it possible 
that human effort should be applied. 

To realize the highest and best type of female 
education — this is the end to be achieved. The 
question what is the system of education most 
appropriate to woman, has happily become one 
of the great practical questions of our times. 
Its answer must depend on the views which 
shall obtain, as to what is her proper sphere and 



5 

mission. If woman is to be, what she has very 
generally been made, not only among barbarous 
nations, but even through the greater part of 
civilized Europe — a laborer and a drudge ; then 
there is need of a discipline adapted to prepare 
her for such a station. If woman is to be only 
what the butterfly in the meadow is to a little 
child — something to be admired as pretty and 
chased by way of pastime ; then the chief aim 
in her education may fitly be to teach her to 
put on gaudy colors, and to flutter with due 
grace. If, as is so earnestly maintained by 
some, she can not enjoy her rights and dignity, 
without being transformed into an Amazon, and 
sent out into the arena of public life, to jostle 
the coarser sex in the scramble for wealth, 
honor and position, and to cause her voice to 
be heard in the clamorous halls of high debate ; 
then she must, in some way, be despoiled of 
her feminine instincts, and nurtured into the 
rudeness and effrontery which such a course 
demands. But if she is capable of high intel- 
lectual, social and moral activity ; if she is to 
bear high responsibilities, and to be in a posi- 
tion to exert effectual influence, for good or ill, 
not simply on the pleasure or the happiness of 
a few, but on the character and destinies of the 



6 

race ; then she should be trained for these great 
things, by a fitting development and cultiva- 
tion of all the constitutional capacities she has. 
That such are her capabilities and her true re- 
lations, it is quite unnecessary, I am sure, to 
offer proof in this assembly. With us, at least, 
she is to be the central pillar of the intelligent, 
virtuous and Christian home, around which all 
its precious interests cluster, and on which its 
stability must essentially depend. Or to change 
the figure, it is in the midst of such a home 
that she is to plant her throne, and to reign with 
such power as she shall be capable of wielding ; 
and from that high position, she is to scatter 
blessings, such as can not be adequately told, 
around her ; or, like one of the fabled Furies, to 
be a minister of mischief as "terrible as hell." 
The education, then, which woman wants, 
is that which will give her Power — power for 
good in the sphere she is to occupy ; and that 
method is of course the best, which gives her 
this in the largest measure. That is a very 
narrow view of education, which includes in it 
little or nothing beyond the attainment of force 
of intellect and the acquisition of knowledge. 
Intellectual force is certainly an element of 
power ; but it is by no means the grand ele- 



7 

ment, the almost sole element as it is some- 
times taken to be, of that power for good which 
it is the best end of education to confer. It is 
easy to find examples of persons possessing 
ample force of intellect, who are yet incapable 
of exerting much influence of any kind on 
others, and least of all, a salutary influence ; 
and one may have the intellectual energy of 
Satan, and be withal as hateful, and as incap- 
able of good, as he. 

So in regard to knowledge. It is indeed 
power, as has been said ; that is, it is an im- 
portant means or instrument of power. Yet 
knowledge may be possessed, and confer no 
power at all, or next to none ; or it may give 
power for evil only, and not for good. The 
want of something else in combination with it, 
may render it worse than useless. 

The truth unquestionably is, that it is charac- 
ter — taking the word in its broadest sense — on 
which power for good depends. Let there be 
all the energy of intellect which the severest 
discipline can give ; of course there can not be 
too much of this great attainment. Let there 
be all the affluence of learning which diligence 
can gather from the varied field of knowledge ; 
so much the better. These is nothing that can 



8 

be learned, in letters, in science, or in art, which 
it is not worth one's while to know. But then 
with these, there must be combined attainments 
of wholly another kind, attainments which are 
so essential as elements of personal excellence, 
that without them character is necessarily in- 
complete and: weak ; while with them, it is de- 
veloped into symmetry and beauty, and is fitted 
to command enduring confidence, homage and 
affection. Every one of us can probably think 
of individuals within the circle of our acquaint- 
ance, who with no extraordinary intellectual 
vigor, nor any wide range of knowledge, pos- 
sess a high degree of salutary power, — power 
to interest, to influence and to bless all with 
whom they come in contact ; and they owe it 
to what ? To the fact that along with a sound 
understanding and a respectable amount of 
knowledge, they exhibit the fruits of a proper 
ethical and aesthetic culture, in an engaging 
and admirable harmony of character. Educa- 
tion, then, in the case of either sex, has failed 
to accomplish its highest end, whatever it may 
have done, if such a culture has not been 
achieved. 

The first thing to which I will particularly 
refer as included in that department of educa- 



9 

tion which stands related more immediately to 
character, is self-government. Self-government 
consists in the subjection of inward impulses 
of every kind, to the control of reason and con- 
science acting through the will. These im- 
pulses are the springs of human activity. 
Every human breast is full of them. Some of 
them are vague instincts ; undefined and half 
conscious inclinations and yearnings of the soul. 
Some are appetites, which are things of definite 
consciousness, and which have their specific 
and well known objects. Some are passions, 
which have their ground in the natural tem- 
perament, and their immediate cause in occa- 
sional excitements. They impel to action, but, 
in the present condition of our nature, as often 
to wrong action as to right. They are to the 
soul, what the winds, and the waves, and the 
currents, are to the vessel on the sea, — the 
cause of motion, but requiring chart, and com- 
pass, and the controlling helm, to make the 
motion right and useful. It is the grand misery 
of at least half the world, that they have no 
self mastery, and do not try to have. They 
are too reckless to think or care whether the 
promptings of inclination will lead them right 

or wrong. They have no idea of self resistance 
2 



10 

and self-conquest. They weakly and foolishly 
conclude, that they are bound to be, in their 
character and life, what nature and circum- 
stances have made them in their propensities ; 
and so they commit themselves, like ships 
abandoned to their fate, to all the fitful gusts 
and surges of ungoverned impulse and emotion, 
heedless of what the consequence may be. 
Such shamelessly abandon the high and glori- 
ous prerogatives of a rational and moral nature ; 
and who can wonder that they should make, 
as they are seen to do by thousands, an utter 
wreck of happiness and hope. For every one 
who is thus dashed on fatal rocks, it might be 
written as the most appropriate epitaph, — " He 
died as a fool dieth." 

And while self-government is a most neces- 
sary attainment to every human being, it is 
least of all to be dispensed with in the case of 
the gentler sex. The impulses of woman are 
constitutionally quicker, and her feelings more 
intense, than those of man. She moves in a 
sphere in which wayward and ill-regulated 
dispositions are mischievous in a preeminent 
degree. Out in the noisy world, where all in- 
terests and all partizanships contend in rude 
collision, capriciousness, self-will, and unbri- 



11 

died passion are sufficiently repulsive ; but in 
the peaceful precincts of the family and home, 
where gentle courtesies, and guileless thoughts, 
and sweet affections, should evermore be found, 
such exhibitions are mean and hateful in the 
last degree. In such a place, an inconsiderate, 
wilful, waspish individual, is like a rough stone 
thrown into a machine of admirable mechan- 
ism, which, harshly grating as it goes, deran- 
ges everything by its pernicious friction ; or 
better still, perhaps, like the arch fiend in the 
primeval paradise, whose only errand in the 
world, was to destroy the happiness which his 
own evil dispositions rendered him incapable 
of sharing. On woman, therefore, certainly 
there rests the highest possible obligation, to 
acquire the habit of self-government. With- 
out it, there will be no beauty in her life. She 
must, as she would not utterly fail to fulfill her 
high mission in the world, bring reason and 
conscience, enlightened by the Scriptures, to sit 
in judgment constantly on the impulses and 
the passions of the heart ; and to subject them 
to such limitations and restraints, as shall make 
them answer their true end. To give this 
self-control, is just as much the legitimate 
business of education, as it is to impart the 



12 

power of steady application or of vigorous rea- 
soning to the intellect. It will not come by 
accident ; there must be a subjection to appro- 
priate discipline ; a discipline patiently and 
faithfully applied. 

Next to self government, in this general 
department of education, may be placed the 
culture of the imagination. This faculty, espe- 
cially with minds of the higher order, has a 
most important influence in the determination 
and the development of character. Out of the 
elements supplied by observation and experi- 
ence, together with the images and the analo- 
gies suggested by the fancy, the soul, by the 
imaginative power, is all the while creating its 
own realms of thought ; producing the very 
atmosphere in which it lives, and imparting 
tinges of light and shade, as the case may be, 
to all things. To each individual, of course, 
life is, to a very great extent, what his own 
imagination makes it. It is not so much on 
the things themselves by which we are sur- 
rounded that our own happiness or unhappiness 
depends, as on the state of our own imagina- 
tions in relation to these things. Our condition 
may be as nearly perfed as is possible, in such 
a world as this; <\\u\ ye1 a morbid imagination 



13 

shall distort every thing into repulsiveness, and 
surround us with legions of demons and hob- 
goblins begotten by itself. And on the other 
hand it often happens, that where the way 
of life appears to lie through an arid, dreary 
desert, such a charm is thrown about it by 
a healthful imagination, that it seems to be 
redolent with the fragrance of sweet flowers, 
and to murmur with the music of ever-flowing 
waters. Certainly it is the very extreme of 
folly to neglect the education of a faculty so 
wonderful in power for evil or for good ; to 
leave it to the influence of circumstances, with- 
out any restraint or guidance. To this neglect, 
it is doubtless true, that the wretchedness of 
thousands of lives which should have been 
bright and happy, may fairly be ascribed. 

And it would seem that the proper culture 
of the imagination is, in the case of woman, 
especially demanded. It is hers to move in a 
comparatively retired and quiet sphere. The 
larger part of her life is likely to be passed 
quite away from the clatter of the noisy world, 
the world of fact and sense. For her, there 
will, of necessity, be many hours in which the 
soul will be left to its own self-communings. 
If in these circumstances, she has a pure and 



14 

healthful, and yet rich and vigorous imagina- 
tion, she will often forget the cares and toils 
which the passing day may bring, while she 
invests the most ordinary things with the en- 
chantment of a rosy light, or summons up 
around her an endless variety of bright and 
beautiful creations. Then literally, 

Her mind, 
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms ; 
Her memory, be as a dwelling place 
For all sweet sounds and harmonies; — 

and she will be preeminent in power, not only to 
enjoy herself, but to assist others also to enjoy 
whatever pleasures the sphere in which she 
moves may offer. The little incidents of do- 
mestic life, the sunny smile, or the thoughtful 
gaze of childhood, the ever new unfoldings of 
the traits of individual character, and of the 
sympathies and the affections which are com- 
mon to human hearts wherever found : all 
these will be continually exciting in her mind 
delightful trains of imaginative musing, inno- 
cent and pleasing always, and often highly 
profitable. The face of nature, too, as often as 
she shall look on it, will, to her eye, be dressed 
in smiles, and fraught with meaning ; and from 
its flowers, and fields, and woods, its changing 
skies, its setting suns, and the solemn beauty 



15 

of its midnight heavens, it wili furnish the 
elements from which, in her high thoughts, 
she shall elaborate for herself glorious crea- 
tions, the habitual vision of which, will at 
once delight and elevate the soul. 

But on the other hand, let woman carry into 
the scenes of domestic life an imagination viti- 
ated and unhealthful through neglect of proper 
culture. It will have a feverish restlessness. It 
will be inclined to revel in visionary schemes 
of action and success, and in its own extrava- 
gant pictures of pleasures which are impossible 
under the conditions which are imposed on hu- 
man life. Or, taking a sombre passionate hue, 
it will delight in nursing a sentimental melan- 
choly, and will choose the cypress shades of 
fictitious grief. It will beget a distate for life's 
plain and ordinary duties ; will exaggerate the 
defects it sees in persons and in things ; will 
tend to selfishness of feeling and irritability of 
temper ; and so it will be likely not only to unfit 
for the cheerful discharge of duty, but also to 
become a cause of the keenest suffering, both 
to the individual herself, and to all who are 
about her. It is but too easy to find examples 
of this sort. In many a home, that should 
have been the abode of all kind charities, the 



16 
fountains of domestic happiness have been 
poisoned in this manner beyond the possibility 
of healing; and the brightest prospects have 
thus been only the prelude to broken hearts 
and irremediable wretchedness. Prometheus 
fastened to the naked mountain crag, with 
hungry vultures ever feeding on his vitals, is 
but too fit an emblem of a mind in which that 
noble faculty which should have hung the uni- 
verse with gorgeous draperies, and scattered 
cheerful sunlight over all things, has been cor- 
rupted into an instrument of torture. It is 
surely worth the while, to employ the utmost 
power of education for the prevention of such 
a blighting of all the hopes of life as this. If 
it is true in respect to this as well as other 
faculties, that different minds exhibit natural 
diversities, which can not be removed entirely, 
it is also true that a patient and judicious cul- 
ture, is sure to be rewarded with a good mea- 
sure of success. 

Not less important than the culture of a 
healthful imagination, in that part of educa- 
tion which bears more immediately on charac- 
ter, is the formation of pure arid elevated tastes. 
It is no doubt true, that the ground of the 
widely different tastes or appetencies of mind, 



17 

which are exhibited, may lie, to some limited 
extent, in a difference of natural constitution. 
But after all, we believe that they are in the 
main the result of educational influences. The 
young are easily led to acquire the tastes of 
those with whom they immediately associate. 
By the force of example, or the influence of 
conversation, their attention is directed towards 
particular objects of interest, to which at first, 
perhaps, they were altogether indifferent, until 
a decided relish for them is awakened and con- 
firmed. 

But it is a fact which forces itself painfully 
upon our notice, that even among those who 
are in many respects well educated, and who 
are surrounded with the most favorable social 
influences, there are comparatively few of 
whom it can be said that their tastes are truly 
pure and noble. The simple innocent pleasures 
which are found chiefly in the quiet scenes of 
life, which spring and grow where industry 
and prudence conjoined with sweet affections, 
make orderly, and virtuous, and cheerful 
homes — how much less are they sought and 
valued by the many than the exciting, artificial 
pleasures which are invented first to stimulate, 
and then to pamper feverish desire. There is 



IS 

a general eagerness for what is denominated 
fashionable life ; and yet how humiliating is 
the picture of such a life, if it be correctly 
drawn. What is there worthy of a rational 
nature — not to say of a responsible and immor- 
tal mind — in the chief things which those who 
lead that life are educated to admire ? In the 
circles of fashion, both with men and women, 
the chief end of living might well be deemed 
to be, to cheat each other with false pretences 
in the astutest manner possible. A show of 
wealth, a show of elegance, a show of beauty, 
a show of amiableness ; " every one Avalketh in 
a vain show " literally ; and life is all a seeming, 
not a being. The tastes are moulded to the 
admiration of the merely circumstantial and 
fictitious. By the influence of such tastes the 
mind is likely to become pitifully weak in its 
modes of thought, and low and even silly in 
its wishes and ambitions. It is made to see by 
a false light, and to judge by a false standard, 
in regard to the real objects of existence. In- 
deed to set forth adequately the emptiness and 
folly which are exhibited by those who are thus 
lost to simple truth and nature, requires the 
broad dashes of the comic pen, or the keen 
touches of the satirist. Addison in one of his 



19 

papers, makes one of his fashionable ladies 
write a letter after this sort. 

" Mr. Shapely is the prettiest gentleman 
about town. He is verv tall, but not too tall 
neither. He dances like an angel, and his 
mouth is made I do not know how, but it is the 
prettiest I ever saw in my life. He is always 
laughing, for he has an infinite deal of wit. If 
you did but see how he rolls his stockings ! He 
has a thousand pretty fancies ; and I am sure 
if you saw him you would like him. I wish 
you could see him dance. Now you must un- 
derstand, poor Mr. Shapely has no estate ; but 
how can he help that you know ? and yet my 
friends are so unreasonable as to be always 
teasing me about him because he has no estate. 
But he is a good natured, ingenious, civil, tall, 
handsome man, — and I am obliged to him for 
his civilities ever since I saw him. I forgot to 
tell you that he has black eyes, and looks upon 
me now and then as if he had tears in them ; 
and yet my friends are so unreasonable, that 
they would have me be uncivil to him." 

Too many ladies unfortunately, are so mis- 
educated, that this might be taken as a not 
unfair specimen of the tastes which they ex- 
hibit. But Pope hits off this class with some- 
what more severitv of tone. 



20 

'* Yet mark the fate of a whole sex of queens ; 
Power all their end, but beauty all the means : 
In youth they conquer with so wild a rage, 
As leaves them scarce a subject in their age. 
For foreign glory — foreign joy they roam; 
No thought of peace or happiness at home. 
A fop their passion, but their prize a sot; 
Alive ridiculous, and dead, forgot." 

This touches, no doubt, on the extreme ex- 
amples of the fashionable lady. But it is sad 
enough to think that there should be any to sit 
for such a picture. It is enough to move one's 
indignation that woman with her intellectual 
acuteness, her nice perceptions, her generous 
impulses, and her capacity for the noblest occu- 
pations, should be trained up for a life of such 
inanity. In every instance of such perversion 
of what is most admirable in woman's nature, 
it is as if a star were precipitated from its 
sphere, and all its glory quenched. 

Certainly it must be made a prominent aim 
in the work of education, to cultivate such 
tastes as utterly indispose and incapacitate for 
the wretched insipidity and emptinesss of a 
life of fashionable display or of unworthy 
pleasures. Is it asked what tastes we more 
especially intend ? We answer, a taste for 
sincere and simple manners; for useful and 
healthful occupation ; for pleasures that refresh 



21 

the mind and leave it pore ; for the chastely 
beautiful in nature and in art ; for books and 
friends which will aid the mind to unfold its 
powers, add to its intellectual wealth, and 
stimulate its fertility. There is no intelligent 
parent who may not very early do much to 
turn the attention to such things, and excite a 
fervent admiration for them. There is no com- 
petent instructor who may not if he pleases ; 
there is no wise instructor who does not in 
reality, exert a powerful influence in the same 
direction ; and it is one of the sweet rewards 
of his wearisome and often unappreciated 
labor, that the faithful teacher sometimes sees 
his efforts to enkindle in the soul a genuine 
love of excellence — to excite a hearty sympa- 
thy with what is pure and true, and an aspira- 
tion towards it — in a high degree successful. 
Where before there seemed to be an absence of 
the more elevated tastes of which the mind is 
capable, there has been effected all at once, and 
perhaps by some very simple means, an awak- 
ening of such tastes into activity ; and as a 
consequence, a beautiful development of gen- 
erous sentiments, and of the refined and grace- 
ful traits which belong to the highest type of 
merely natural character ; and many a pupil, 



22 

in the delightful consciousness of such a quick- 
ening of his inner being, has cherished, through- 
out the whole of life, a deep and fervent grati- 
tude to those whose wise and patient faithful- 
ness had wrought it in him. 

But there is a still more essential element in 
the human constitution, which education is 
imperatively bound to reach ; I mean the moral 
sense — the conscience. It seems to have been 
taken for granted by too many, that conscience 
is a sort of constant quantity in the structure 
of the soul, which must be taken in each case, 
as we find it, and must be left to its own natu- 
ral developement ; and it may strike such 
strangely that the idea of educating the moral 
faculty should be suggested. But why should 
the susceptibility to moral impression, be more 
than any other susceptibility, incapable of cul- 
ture ? The susceptibility to the effect of natural 
beauty and deformity, we are well aware, may 
be rendered exquisite by cultivation ; and why 
not the susceptibility to moral beauty and 
deformity as well? 

The obvious fact is that the moral faculty is 
capable of education, and has been too gene- 
rally educated wrong. It excites our wonder 
that the conscience of the youth of Sparta 



23 

should have been taught to approve successful 
falsehood as a virtue ; or that of the Hindoo 
mother, to command, in spite of the pleadings 
of natural affection, the drowning of her infant, 
as an act of the purest piety. But everywhere 
about us we may see examples which equally 
evince a perverted moral sense. What is more 
common than to see people not wanting in 
intelligence, who make conscience of doing 
the most unconscionable things ? What is the 
whole history of fanaticism in all its various 
forms, but the history of such a misdirection? 
How conscientiously have the fires of persecu- 
tion been lighted up, and cruelties the most 
abhorrent inflicted on the innocent ; or to take 
a narrower view, in the common affairs of life, 
how many things are daily said and done, 
which indicate a want of that fine moral sen- 
sibility which shrinks from the least departure 
from the rules of right. The insincerity, the 
equivocations, the false pretences, the hollow 
professions, in short, the numberless tamper- 
ings with truth by word or action — white 
lies, as Mrs. Opie calls them, and yet but a 
dingy white at best — which prevail even in 
respectable society, afford the painful and 
abundant proof, that either through perversion 



24 

or what comes to the same thing, for want of 
proper culture, the conscience fails to perform 
its office. 

Now the want of a nice moral sensibility is 
fatal to any high degree of excellence in any 
character. No matter what other qualities 
may be exhibited ; no matter how high a grace 
of manner, nor how many charms of person, 
nor what brilliancy of intellectual gifts may be 
possessed, by any individual. The beauty of 
the whole is marred ; the character fails at 
once to command a genuine admiration, so 
soon as it is seen that there is no quick percep- 
tion of the difference between right and wrong; 
no lively feeling of moral obligation. Experi- 
ence shows that where this grand defect exists 
it is not safe to repose our confidence ; and 
such as exhibit it, are generally in fact regard- 
ed, by those who understand them, with sus- 
picion. And it is utterly repugnant to the idea 
of a well educated and truly accomplished 
woman, that she be supposed to be capable of 
regarding anything clearly wrong without aver- 
sion, or of contemplating moral loveliness in 
any of its forms without delight. We are all 
the more disposed, from the position which it 
belongs to woman ordinarily to occupy, to 



25 

expect and demand in her this purity of moral 
feeling, and rectitude of moral judgment ; and 
it should therefore be labored all the more, in 
the course of her education, not only on the 
one hand to guard against those influences 
Avhich blunt or vitiate the moral sense, but also 
on the other, to surround her with such as shall 
tend to augment its susceptibility, and to give 
accuracy to its decisions. A tender conscience 
is likely to produce those outward virtues which 
constitute an amiable character, even where 
there does not as yet exist the inward virtues 
of a renewed and holv heart ; and it is not 
to be doubted, that a heart in which there 
is habitually a lively sense of the deformity of 
vice, and the loveliness of virtue, is much more 
likely to be open to those influences which 
beget in it true goodness, and unite it savingly 
to God, than one in which such moral sensi- 
bility is wanting. We can not too deeply feel, 
that of all parts of the great work of education, 
that which pertains to the moral element in 
the constitution of our being, is the very high- 
est in importance ; for it is this element which 
connects us most directly with God and im- 
mortality. 

4 



26 

It will be obvious then to every thoughtful 
person, that there is good ground for the sug- 
gestion made at the outset of these remarks, 
that but few, comparatively, comprehend the 
greatness and difficulty of the work which is 
daily carried forward in the peaceful halls of 
study, where the plastic elements of mind and 
heart are to be moulded. It is a broad work 
which is to be accomplished. It is one of such 
interest as words are insufficient to express. 
It is not merely to discipline the understanding 
and to gather up treasures of knowledge in the 
memory; but in addition to these things, to 
produce the calm dignity of self-control, to 
train the imagination to a chaste and healthful 
brilliancy and power; to form the tastes to de- 
light only in such pleasures or pursuits, as are 
simple, innocent and worthy of man's higher 
nature; and finally, so to cultivate the moral 
sensibility, as that the conscience shall be at 
once tender and enlightened ; to develope all 
the attributes of mind, all the essential ele- 
ments of virtuous character, into the com- 
pleteness, symmetry and beauty, which consti- 
tute high excellence — this is the work to which 
these sweet retreats are sacred, and for which 
these social, intellectual and moral disciplines, 



27 

have been instituted and administered. Such 
I am happy to believe, is the high end which 
is steadily kept in view by the accomplished 
instructors of this favored institution. They 
are doing what they can to elevate the type of 
female character among us, and so to add to 
the salutary influence and power of woman. 
And I am sure that among those who have been 
gathered here for study, there are many who have 
entered fully into this great idea, and have felt 
an honorable ambition to be themselves exam- 
ples of all that is most to be admired in the 
noblest of their sex. I know that there are 
hearts here, in which the desire for such excel- 
lence as results from the highest, and the com- 
pletest culture, glows with the fervor of a 
passion. I know there must be those before 
whose vision floats continually an ideal of 
feminine perfection, into which enter all the 
higher elements of character, and towards 
which their hearts are yearning ever. To ap- 
proach it they are striving, and intend to strive 
through life. They will approach it. They 
will be rich in intellectual resources. They will 
be rich in the nobler qualities on which influ- 
ence and power for good depend ; and where- 
ever Providence may place them, they will 



28 

shine as bright and glorious stars, while a 
thousand meteors flash their little moment and 
disappear forever. 

It is the portrait of such a woman that 
Wordsworth has so exquisitely drawn, in one 
of the finest of his minor pieces. 

I saw her upon nearer view, 

A spirit — yet a woman too ! 

Her household motions light and free, 

And steps of virgin liberty ; 

A countenance in which did meet 

Sweet records, promises as sweet, 

A creature not too bright or good 

For human nature's daily food; 

For transient sorrows, simple wiles, 

Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles ! 

And now I see, with eye serene, 
The very pulse of the machine ; 
A Being breathing thoughtful breath ; 
A Traveler between life and death ; 
The reason firm— the temperate will, 
Endurance, foresight, strength and skill ; 
A perfect woman—nobly planned 
To warn, to comfort and command; 
And yet a spirit still, and bright 
With something of an Angel light ! 

Than such a woman, there is nothing on this 
earth more lovely, more divine. To form such, 
surely is a glorious task. To be such — is to 
reach an eminence of honor, power, and bless- 
edness, with which the heart which has the 
loftiest aspirings, may very well rest content. 



29 

May God, throughout all time, fill all our 
homes with mothers and with daughters 
formed to such a model ! 

I will detain you only while I add, that it is 
to be gratefully acknowledged, that the religious 
faith in which we have been nurtured, not only 
harmonizes with the highest and best culture 
of our whole being, but is itself, where it is 
vital in the heart, the most effectual means of 
producing such a culture. You will not expect 
me to forget, on this occasion, that I am a Christ- 
ian minister. You will suffer me to say that 
it is in the blessed gospel of our Lord and Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ, that all our good impulses 
must begin ; and that it is by its motives, and 
in its spirit, that we are to strive to educate 
ourselves, if we are to attain to a true elevation 
and refinement ; if we are to acquit ourselves 
worthily under the high responsibilities of life. 
The New Testament — how pure the spirit which 
it breathes around our souls ! How admirable 
the character which it portrays — the self-edu- 
cation on which it so earnestly insists ! That 
divine model which it presents, that living re- 
alization of humanity in absolute perfection in 
the person of Jesus Christ — how it is fitted to 
exalt our conceptions of the beauty of true 



:30 

goodness ! And as a motive power to urge our 
souls to right affections and to high endeavors, 
what is there comparable at all to that deep, 
grateful love, which is kindled and sustained 
by gazing on the amazing sacrifice of Calvary ! 
Ah yes ! It is by the light, and under the in- 
fluences of our divine religion, that our educa- 
tion is to be carried forward most effectually. 
We can not hesitate to labor, in the training of 
our minds and the shaping of our characters, 
if we have the firm assurance that we shall 
reap the rich reward of our efforts and our sa- 
crifices — not only in the coming years of our 
earthly life, but also amid the brighter scenes, 
and the more glorious activities of that immor- 
tal life which lies a little way before us. And 
such a reward we shall reap, if, on Christian 
principles, we strive to reach the highest forms 
of real excellence. To those of you who in 
the warmth of early hopes, are opening your 
fresh hearts to forming influences, it is indeed 
a weighty thought, that character is an imper- 
ishable thing. It is a glorious thought, that if 
now you lay its foundations right, and rear the 
structure well, not a grace of it shall perish, 
not an element decay, in all the round of ever- 
lasting years. Your force of intellect, your 



31 

accumulated knowledge, your mastery of self, 
your high culture of imagination, taste and 
moral feeling — not one of these shall be left 
behind, when the spirit, ripe for Heaven, shall 
plume its wing for its bright eternal home. By 
these you shall be qualified for the grander 
scenes of action and enjoyment, for which the 
God who made you, designed your immortal 
being ! 



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